Last week Harriet was awarded the Rising Star in Innovation award at the SCCS London Survey Awards dinner.
A fantastic achievement that recognises her significant contribution to academic excellence and innovation in the industry over the last year.
We took the chance to chat to Harriet about the award and her experiences at GEO-Instruments.
What is your role at GEO-Instruments?
I’m a Senior Monitoring Engineer for the GEO-Socotec Joint Venture working on the S1/S2 tunnelling project for HS2.
How long have you worked at GEO?
I started here three years ago.
Tell us a bit about your time here?
I’ve been with GSJV on the HS2 project since I started as a Graduate Engineer in 2021.
HS2 has presented a lot of challenges but has also exposed me to a lot of different aspects of construction and management that’s given me invaluable experience.
I’m really enjoying my recent role of leading Northolt Tunnels East. It’s a lot of responsibility but also very rewarding.
Congratulations on winning the SCCS Rising Star Award! What does this award mean to you?
It’s a special moment. I feel privileged to be recognized among the other nominees who’ve all made great contributions to the industry this year.
I’m also really proud of all my colleagues in the JV team, I couldn’t have achieved this without them. I’m particularly grateful to my project director Aansan for all his support and mentorship these last two and a half years.
How did you get started in the industry?
I joined GEO-Instruments as fresh-faced graduate straight out of University.
It was actually a stroke of luck that I ended up here! I was about to accept another job offer the day before but lost my car keys and left my laptop in the car so couldn’t respond properly.
When I eventually got access to my emails, I saw the opportunity from GEO and the rest is history!
Can you tell us about your day to day work?
Every day tends to be pretty busy! My work involves organising survey and installation teams on day and night shifts, planning procurement and building bespoke I&M proposals.
My other responsibilities include more commercial things like pricing jobs and communicating with clients and suppliers.
What do you like most about the job/company?
I really like the team culture here and on the Joint Venture. I’m also grateful for the support and opportunities that working for GEO-Instruments has brought me, Including getting nominated for this award!
What would you change?
There needs to be more work socials!
How do you like to spend your time when not at work?
I spend a lot of time watching and playing football. I feel it helps train the tenacity and determination necessary for my job and makes me a better team player.
I also love to travel and recently returned from a trip to Miami!
I especially enjoy travelling to areas with interesting geology like national parks and volcanoes to add to my rock collection. My favourite find so far is some sulphur crystals I gathered from a volcano in Santorini.
What are you looking forward to/ working towards in the future?
I’m looking forward to progressing further into project management roles and gaining more career experience for future.
